Nefarious: Next Generation
by Lizard501
Summary: Oneshots of the Nefarious characters as they all go through their own versions of the same epic quest: Parenthood. New future princesses, new future villains, and new future hero wannabes.
1. 1: Three Heroes

**Three Heroes**

* * *

Bramble Flats, home base to the empire of the villainous Crow. The castle itself had been rebuilt when the said villain had rebuilt his evil empire from its remains.

And it was eerily quiet as three heroes snuck through.

Mack, the former hero of Macro City, now a hero-for-hire, kept his sword out in anticipation of any danger around all corners. Following him were Dash, Captain of the Guard in Insektia, and Guryon the Righteous, hero of Winterdown, the latter of which held up the back. There would have been a fourth member of the group, but Kaptain Man had to deal with other business.

The reason these three heroes walked through had much to do with the quietness in the castle. Crow's activities had been recently almost nonexistent, and most of the schemes that were done and credited by him had been reported as strange. With Princess Mayapple as Macro City's new hero, while dealing with politics, she had requested the hero in blue to check on the activities of the city's villain. Said hero had known he'd need to still have back up in case.

But the silence of the castle persisted. The few minions that were seen were too easily avoided, most of them found asleep or having trouble doing basic things from what seemed to be from over exhaustion.

"This is quite unsettling. The energy of these minions seems to almost not exist," the dwarf commented after the trio had passed a room where a minion was just pressing buttons on a coffee machine while not noticing the overflowing cup starting to make its feet wet.

"What is Crow doing to these guys that have them this tired?" Dash whispered, hugging the wall as they continued sneaking.

"If it was one of his normal schemes, I'd bet building something but…" Mack's eyes narrowed, biting the inside of his cheek. "The reports did say none of the recent activities the minions were carrying out for him were normal. This could be anything."

"What if he built something that drain the minions' energy for power?" Dash shivered at the thought. Could they fight against that sort of thing?

"Shh, I think I hear him."

The three stood before a door, the voice of the villainous target muffled on the other side. Human, bee, and dwarf all looked at each other, nodded, and charged through the door.

"CROW! WE'RE HERE TO-!"

"WAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

The heroes froze.

Crow wasn't in his purple armor, instead wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pajama bottoms, the sleeve on his robotic arm rolled up. The villain was clearly tired, dark circles under his already dark eyes, his hair more messed up than normal. He hadn't gotten into a battle stance, instead shielding the source of the crying in his arms away from the trio that had just busted into the room. Mack, Dash, and Guryon all realized why everyone in the castle had seemed so tired as they looked at the swaddled bundle that was currently being rocked and calmed down by Crow.

"... That's a baby," Mack stated, pointing at the said infant as his posture went slack as it registered in his mind of the situation.

"Gee, what excellent detective skills you have Mack," Crow sneered, giving the three a death glare as the baby began to quiet down to whimpers.

Neither Guryon or Dash gave eye contact to Crow, both looking away. Guryon tried to hide behind his shield and free hand, muttering "Nope, nope, nope, nope," repeatedly as Dash stated the obvious.

"Well, this is awkward."

In doing so, they finally took in notice that the room that they had charge into was a nursery, completely covered with stuff animals, storage for baby supplies, a changing table, several pictures of animals and small 'cute' versions of the minions, a rocking chair, a few bookshelves that likely contained children books, and that Crow was near the crib the baby had probably been about to be placed down to sleep in.

"You have a baby," Mack said as his mind went on a loop process.

"Yeah, it's the product of the reproduction cycle, _Mack_. It's what we all start out as, _Mack._ It's what been keeping me, Becky, and most of the minions up 24/7 for the past few weeks, _Mack_. It's what you three just woke up after I spent almost two hours getting him to fall asleep, _Mack_." Crow spat out the human in blue's name with venom.

None of the three heroes knew what to really do in this situation. By all means, they were not in the best situation to really _do_ anything that'd probably make this better. Crow continued to glare at them before sighing in defeat and moving to sit in the rocking chair with the baby, the infant still fussing in his father's arms but thankfully quieting down.

From the new angle, the heroes could actually see the baby's key features from here. The strands of hair that poked out from under the small purple hat showed him already having Crow's blonde locks, small ears that had a bit of a point to them, and a beauty mark on one of his cheeks. All three of the intruders stared uncomfortably before Dash coughed awkwardly.

"So… um... Congratulations, dude. Sorry for the intruding and breaking in. Your kid looks adorable, I'm sure he'll be an amazing villain when he gets to that age and all-"

"Get the bolts out of my castle."

"Fair enough, anything we should do while on the wa-" Mack was quickly interrupted.

"Send teething rings."

"Right, any particular amou-"

"Any number above fifty would be good, he goes through them like crazy."

"Got it. We'll just be leaving."

"Good."

They closed the door to the nursery and quickly left the castle the way they came.

* * *

**AN: Some of these one-shots I'll be doing have doodles I made that I posted on the Nefarious amino. **


	2. 2: Hero Baby

**Hero Baby**

* * *

The League of Justice had DnD campaign nights on the night all the princesses of the world met up with each other. Since the villains weren't doing anything, it left the heroes with a night of free time.

Technically, former heroes who didn't turn to villainy were allowed to come to this one night to interact with the others. Some of these former heroes were ones who'd been simply fired, were still heroes in some way outside of the League of Justice, or simply retired. It was expected that they were to call beforehand to let the official members know ahead of time.

Mack did call ahead of time, by about a month.

Mack was running late on the night without any calls about why.

"What's been up with Mack anyways? Haven't heard much from blue-boy," Kaptain Man asked, crossing his arms as he flipped through the player handbook again as he used to time to double check that he had everything prepared for using his level 5 wizard tonight.

Dash shrugged, chewing on a chili dog. "Still doing the hero for hire stuff last time I saw him."  
Justice glared at the mess the chili dog was making on the table, shielding his stuff from it.

Then the said missing person in question rushed through the door quickly, placing down more refreshments on a nearby table as well as other supplies that were needed for something else...

"I'm here! Sorry about not calling, I ended up leaving my communicators at home and I didn't have a lot of time to pick up everything I needed and it was such short notice with everything that happened today but I made it and am ready to the campaign tonight!" Mack announced in what felt like one breath, as he looked at everyone with an embarrassed smile.

Everyone else in the room, however, was staring at who he had brought along. On a baby carrier on his chest, was a little baby girl with big brown eyes and dark hair styled in pigtails, reaching out and smiling at all the other heroes.

"Mack, whose baby is that?" Justice asked.

Mack gave a tired laugh, rubbing the back of his head as he stood up tall to show up the baby strapped to him.

"Oh, this is my baby Maci! Maci, this is the League of Justice!"

"... Mack, how did you-"

"Not a topic I'll discuss around children, Dash."

"Mack," everyone said at the same time, still staring at Maci. Mack kept standing proud before sighing and slacking his posture a bit.

"Okay, so about a year and a half months ago, I might have gone to a bar and gotten a little tipsy."

Everyone stared.

"A lot tipsy."

They still stared.

"Okay, I got full out drunk. And then proceeded to wake up in a hotel bed. So, finding a basket containing Maci here with a note explaining what really happened that night in that hotel room kind of put me in a hurry to get everything at home ready for a six-month-old baby after I had already spent the day buying all the refreshments for tonight."

"And the mother?" Kaptain asked.

"No idea. No signature, I don't recognize the handwriting and I have no memory of who'd it possibly be."

Everyone continued to stare, though some looked at Mack with pity while others looked at the supplies that he had brought along and had been in a hurry to get before arriving there.

"You need any help still?" Guryon asked. Mack rubbed the back of his head, having been so used to help all these years to be giving the help instead of needing or asking for help.

"Yes."

"Alright everyone, we'll have DnD next year. We have a mission tonight," Justice announced, standing up and putting his own stuff away.


	3. 3: Knavery

**Knavery**

* * *

"Great to have you back in on poker night, Crow old boy. And splendid of you to join in as well, Becky!" Dr. Mechano said as the Syndicate of Malice members took their seats.

"Good to be back in the game, Mechano." Crow stretched once taking his seat as Becky took to dealing the cards.

"I'm sure this will be tons of fun," The white-haired secretary commented in her normal deadpan tone.

The card game went along fine, the group catching up on recent events.

"I'm astonished that you and Princess Mayapple are still an item, Malice," Becky mentioned at one point in the first round.

"I'm amused at you and Crow being one, your point?"

"Hilarious."

"Speaking of which," Scorprior started. "Crow, Malice and Mechano here told me the reason why you weren't at the last few poker nights was because of something called a baby?"

Both Malice and Mechano groaned, with Mechano stating, "Scorprior, you mechanical dolt, we already explained this to you!" Crow and Becky in the meantime gave small grimaces.

"Technically Thrasher is a toddler now, but yeah. You won't believe how hard it is to find a sitter for that kid." Crow looked at his cards carefully, now and then eyeing everyone else's.

"We actually had to force a raffle among the minions to see which 'lucky' three get to deal with him." Becky sighed.

"Hey, they all should be grateful that he's finally done teething. Can't believe it took so long for his molars to grow in. But hey, no more teeth marks on any armor or the minions."

"I take it little Thrasher has the family teeth?" Malice held her cards close to her as she raised a brow at the parents.

"Like you wouldn't believe."

"Can we meet this Thrasher?" The robot of the group asked, even more curious about the sound of this 'toddler.'

"Not until he's at least ten." As Becky said that, a few minions ran past the room the poker game was within in quite a hurry, seemingly panicked about something.

* * *

"Oh bolts, oh bolts, oh bolts, the bosses are going to kill us!" Screaming Weasel yelled before getting smacked by Andy.

"Shut it! Do you want them to hear us!?"

"Both of you!" Linden growled, already looking through the security cameras. "Listen, that hellspawn has to still be on the ship, so these cameras are our best bet at the moment. The bosses aren't going to find out that we lost him for about five minutes."

"'Put him in the playpen with toy ponies,' you said. 'He'll be distracted by chewing on the rubber ponies,' you said," Weasel hissed at Andy, glaring dagger through the masks all three wore.

"How was I suppose to know that he didn't like ponies? And you can't fault me on the playpen part, none of us thought he'd chew _right through bolting the bars_."

"Oh don't get me even started on that part!"

Linden watched the security feed, sweating as they continued to realize that the toddler wasn't anywhere on the ship. They press a button to rewind to the point where the small human being chewed his way out of the mentioned playpen and make his way around the ship before ending up in the armory. The minion gave a startled sound, getting the attention of the other two minions in time for them to also see the very person they were looking for hit the button to the drop-platform and head down to the city below.

All three stared at the screens as it struck them that their boss's only kid, that they were in charge of looking after, just dropped down into Macro City, in the most security tight area due to being near the palace.

All three of them began to scream in panic as they raced down to the armory to catch the rascal.

* * *

Mayapple walked through the halls of the palace at the sound of flapping echoed from somewhere. The lack of any sirens or yelling made it seem non-threatening, but the princess was still on guard as around each corner she looked carefully.

Seeing a figure running by right out of the corner of her eye, she hurried over to confront them. "Hey! Wait right there!"

Turning around the corner to meet the figure, she paused at the sight. In front of her, right where the figure had run to, was an older toddler dressed in a purple onesie that seemed to also function as a bird costume. The arms had slightly more fuzziness than the rest of the outfit and with the small child constantly waving them around, the source of the flapping noise was found. Underneath the hoodie that was made to look like a bird's head, the princess could see the light blonde hair underneath. With a pacifier in his mouth, a small beauty mark on one of the child's cheeks, and green eyes under the messy hair, Mayapple couldn't help but give a soft 'aww' as she crouched down to the boy's level.

"Aww! Look at you in your little birdie outfit!"

The toddler kept on flapping his arms at his side, staring at the princess beforoe stopping and moving to put his hands inside the hood of his hoodie.

"Alrighty, well, as much as I'm sure you had fun here in the palace, I'm also sure your parents are wondering where you are. Now, as the princess, I'll be quite happy to- What the!?"

* * *

"And I believe the winner is me" Becky proclaimed in victory as she took all the winnings from the table. Crow was smirking towards her, folding his cards on the table.

"Vicious work there, Becky. Downright brutal for you."

"Thank you."

Dr. Mechano shook his head as he moved to deal out the next round. "Just wait until this round, Becky! The villain of Winterdown will turn out victorious yet! Right, Malice?"

Said villainess was looking over Crow's shoulder at something, raising a brow towards the room's doorway. Alongside the questioning gaze she was giving, was Scorpior tilting his head in the direction. Crow was about to ask what the two were looking at before the group heard,

"Dada! Mama!"

Crow, Becky, and Mechano all turned to see Princess Mayapple tied up from shoulder to ankle next to the blonde, green-eyed toddler holding a gun that had written on the side 'ROPE GUN' and holding onto a pacifier in his other hand.

"How did he get me here?" The princess asked quietly, looking around the ship in utter confusion and bewilderment.

"I kiddie-nap Princess!" The toddler announced, seemingly not caring about all the new people his parents were with. "I get to be bad guy now?"

Both Crow and Becky both stared with wide eyes before Crow gave their son a thumbs up while grinning and Becky gave a small smile. Thrasher grinner back, showing his sharp teeth, completely blinded to how grounded he was going to be for escaping his babysitters.


	4. 4: Daughter of Magic

**Daughter of Magic**

* * *

Mayapple was practically giddy as both she and Malice looked at the wiggling toddler in the princess's arms. The small child held quite a resemblance to the princess with her big blue eyes, pale skin, and a large sweep of her bangs to the side, although in the opposite direction of Mayapple. The messy sides though had parts that could almost resemble the shape of horns, and the color was much closer to a strawberry blonde than Mayapple's light brown.

"Aaaaw, Malice, she looks so much like me!" Mayapple squealed, looking with large, wide eyes brimming with tears at her girlfriend. The wiggling toddler waved her fists around, babbling incoherent words. Malice chuckled in amusement at Mayapple's reaction as she flicked some magical energies around the child for her to play around with.

"Well, of course, she looks like you. Most of her energy is copied from your own. You know, to have her be given some princess-like qualities and all," the enchantress said as made sure to keep the red-head from trying to put the manifested magical forms in her mouth. "Oh no no no, you shouldn't do that."

"But I thought that you also had some of yours copied into her?"

"Oh, there is, I have no doubt that she'll probably show more for my traits when she's older. Her eyes might have more of a dark sclera, her skin might become more bluish or even paler, there are several possibilities."

Once Malice said that, the child laughed as she proceeded to clap, the magical forms Malice had brought about shivering before disappearing and being replaced by smaller duplicates dancing. Both women stared before Malice gave a laugh.

"For another example, she has the potential to be an enchantress as well!"

Mayapple laughed as she held the toddler up, spinning her around. "Did you hear that, little one! You could be like Mama and cast magic!" Malice smiled at the sight as the child giggled before perking up at Mayapple's question. "What do you think about for names?"

Malice hummed as she observed the young one.

"Josephine seems like a nice name."

"I love it! I love her! Oh, Malice, this is perfect!"

Malice chuckled. She'd have to thank Crow and Becky later for this one.


	5. 5:Playdate

**Play-date**

"Behold of the power of Tutu Girl!"

Mack gave a smile as he looked over from doing the dishes at his daughter. Maci wore a white tutu, obviously, with a pink shirt, red shorts, and white rollaer skates as she used the skates to pretend she was flying around the apartment they lived in now.

"'Tutu girl' needs to clean her room," he commented, knowing full well that his daughter had ignored her chore for that day.

"Never!"

He supressed a laugh as he proceeded to raise a brow at her. "Oh? Is Tutu Girl turning into a bad guy?" he asked in an obviously joking manner.

"No! No! I'll go clean my room! Tutu girl is always a hero full time!" Maci cried, still taking the words in as much seriousness as a young child did and skated to the stairs, crawling up them to her room. Mack shook his head as he finished up the dishes and dried his hands. Taking a glance at the fridge, he couldn't help but have his smile turn softer at the picture of all the other heroes with him and infant Maci. He couldn't thank any of them enough for helping him getting ready to raise a kid so quickly. He reminded himself to make sure to send a delivery of sweets from the bakery next time for the next DnD night. Though Dash would need something without sugar...

It was one of the things that came with being a single parent for him. With Maci depending on him, he couldn't exactly be a hero anymore either, full or part time. To still make a living, Mack put to use a skill he probably should thank Mayapple for getting him into learning, baking (he had still kept a promise from then to never tell Mayapple that she sucked at baking.) As cliche as it was, owning the bakery that was below their apartment helped him with a ton of problems that would have came up if he had still tried to keep the hero job.

Mack immediately turned his head at the sound Maci coming back downstairs, sliding down the rail and going to sit on the couch giggling. He went over to see her having left her tutu upstairs, yet still wearing the skates as she proceeded to put on the jacket for that day. Maci laughed as she made silly faces at him as he raised his eyebrows.

"What happened to Tutu Girl?"

"I'm now Roller Girl!"

He blamed Dash for the girl's love of roller skates.

"I'm guessing Roller Girl is the one heading for the delivery mission for the Princess?"

"Yup!"

* * *

Being friends with Mayapple after the whole event with him breaking up with her was nice at times. It was less awkward when outside of hero-hours mostly, and now with his current main occupation, was rather fine by all means. He still didn't show up for the go-kart events though. One of the reasons being the very enchantress that opened the door to Maci's knocking.

"Oh, hello Mack."

"Malice."

Neither of them really cared for each other, but it made Mayapple and the kids happy if they didn't try to kill the other.

"Oh, Mack! Hi! We were just done with Josephine's lessons!" Mayapple's voice thankfully came soon after, though the words proceeded to have Maci rush through the doors towards the red-headed princess-to-be.

"Josey!"

"Hi Maci, hi Mr. Mulder," was the 'older' girl's deadpan response before Maci dragged her away while chatting loudly. Malice shook her head at the two as Mack sighed bashfully, still holding the sweets. Mayapple's smile twitched slightly before clasping her hands.

"Tea?"

* * *

These deliveries weren't always a thing when the girls were having a playdate, but it was a thing that did still happen as the adults caught up with each other. Or rather, Mack and Mayapple catching up. It seemed that particular playdate day was going to be one where Malice finally joined in on the conversation as opposed to usually being the watchdog for the kids.

"Maci seems to really be in a hero phase, hmm?" the elf commented, the said child 'defeating' the villainous teddy bear the two had set up in the game of 'Princess and Hero.' Mayapple had gone to check on something that came up with the palace guards.

"I'm not sure if you're criticizing or not," he jabbed.

"Just an observation." The white-skinned woman sipped from her cup. "Don't really think I've ever seen her play the 'princess' part of the game. And before you mention Josephine's future, I'd like to point out Mayapple being a Princess Knight as proof that there could be a switch up," She held a hand up with she interrupted Mack's comment on such.

The man huffed a bit before looking at his cup. "She has a lot of hero-figures in her life. I don't see anything odd about that."

Malice hummed, nursing the cup. Mack dared to glance at her out of the corner of his eye. "Why is that getting your attention all of a sudden." It wasn't so much of a question as more a demand. "Doesn't Josephine have plenty of influential figures in her life that are part of at least one of the normal roles?"

"I wish."

Mack raised a brow at the admission. Malice returned the look with a huff. "Don't let it get to your head, Maci's not Josephine's only friend, thankfully. But the girl definitely didn't inherit Mayapple's power to weaponize friendship." For once, she leaned back on the couch, resting her arm on the back. Mack remained quiet, letting the magic-wielder continued. "She quickly learned to hate Thrasher, despite Mayapple's plan."

"Thrasher?" Mack had a feeling he knew who the kid was, but it was at the back of his mind.

"Crow's and Becky's kid."

"Oh, you mean the Teether Baby."

"You've met him?"

"Not really," he explained, moving a hand through his hair. It was around this time Mayapple returned.

"Alrighty, that was taken care of. Anything I missed?"

"We were talking about Thrasher," Malice informed her partner. Mayapple's face almost fell at hearing the name. "Apparently Mulder here knows about him." The princess's face fell even more.

"Oh, you heard about that?"

"Heard about what?"

"Oh, um, nothing." Mayapple quickly said, taking her seat between the two other adults.

"So how do you know him? Crow and Becky hadn't even wanted to introduce him to the Syndicate until he was ten. I highly doubt he'd have wanted to introduce the kid to _you_ of all people."

"It was when Mayapple here asked me, Dash, and Guryon to check out the activities at Crow's castle. It was the most awkward confrontation of my life, seeing Crow cradling a baby," he explained, a bit of a sour look on his face before looking at the said princess with curiosity. "So, what did Crow's kid do?"

Malice glanced towards Mayapple, who hid her own face in her hands. Meanwhile, as the adults talked, Josephine was explaining to Maci why she had been insistent on calling the stuffed bear they used as the villain for their game of make-believe 'Stupid Shark-Teeth.'

* * *

_Mayapple had a simple plan. Maybe if she tried to be a positive role-model for Thrasher, he'd be less inclined to be evil. She was even going to ignore that he had already kidnapped her once, despite Malice pointing this out. _

_One way to do this was to arrange a playdate between him and Josephine, in hopes of also showing her daughter how other bad guys other than Malice had softer sides too. Mayapple had somehow managed to get Crow to agree to a playdate between the two for a game of soccer. Malice still had reservations on the whole thing, rather preferring that if their daughter was going to interact with other villains, it'd be adult members of the syndicate._

"_Mayapple, are you sure you want to start with Thrasher?" Malice had asked as they arrived at the field, all three members of the family prepared for the sport with proper gear. Malice took on a dark blue, Mayapple in her signature pink, and Josephine in her favorite color green._

_"Well, why not? He's around Josephine's age after all! Crow might come from a lineage of villainy, Malice, but he does have nice moments. I'm sure Thrasher will have similar traits." _

_Malice gave a slightly concerned look before directing towards Josephine. "If he gives you any trouble, let us know?"_

_"Yes, Mama."_

_Mayapple pouted at Malice's hesitation before seeing the other family and waving them over. Unlike their own colorful attire, the villainous family all had taken on the color of purple, Becky is the only one not in the right gear for rather clear reasons._

_"Oh, adding another member to the family!?" Mayapple commented while Malice, if one listened carefully, was screaming on the inside at the sight of a pregnant Becky._

_"Hopefully without the same teething problem," the white-haired human commented. Between her and Crow was a seven-year-old Thrasher staring at Josephine._

_Mayapple gave a smile before kneeling down to greet the boy. "Hello, Thrasher! Remember me?" Said blonde boy looked at the princess in pink and gave, not a smile, but a grin full of sharp teeth, causing Josephine to try and hide behind Malice's legs._

_"Yeah, you were my first kidnapping victim! Dad said I can't do that again until I'm older though, but I'm allowed to still go on the less important missions to learn about how to be a bad guy._

_That should have been the first red flag that Mayapple's plan wasn't going to work. _

"_Oh, well, I'm so happy you remember me at least."_

_Crow folded his arms with a smile of pride at his son's words before looking at the younger girl behind the Syndicate Leader's legs. "Princess Josephine, I assume?" _

_Josephine looked at the villains with a perplexed expression, still clinging to Malice's legs. "Hello."_

_Mayapple had actually felt hope for her plan when Thrasher held his hand out to the red-head, stilling grinning._

_"Name's Thrasher, both your future kidnapper and future villain of Macro City. Hi, how ya doin'?"_

_It was a disaster from there on. _

_Malice took to sitting with Becky to have the teams be even, letting both play as referees. This turned into a problem during the game as both Crow and Thrasher had no problem trying to cheat and Malice and Becky would get into arguments about if there was actually a loophole that covered the illegal move._

_Josephine huffed a bit as she sat on the ground, a bit mad of how bad this was going as the adults argued about the rules __again__. She crossed her arms while pouting as she went to glare at Thrasher, who had dealt the most recent cause of the argument, only to have problems finding him. She quickly looked around. With such light blonde hair, shouldn't he be easier to spot?_

_Apparently not when Thrasher suddenly managed to sneak up on her and grab her. The red-head had begun to scream as the boy proceeded to carry her off the field while laughing maniacally, the scream alerting the adults._

_Both Malice and Malice had run after to the two as Crow doubled over laughing with Becky cheering Thrasher on, officially ending the ruined playdate with Thrasher citing that his 'not being allowed to kidnap again' rule had been only directed toward Mayapple._

_Malice had gone on to comfort both a now scared Josephine and an upset Mayapple once back home._

* * *

"And that's what happened within the last month," Malice finished, Mayapple stuffing her mouth with the sweet from Mack's bakery with a pout. Mack patted the princess on the back with giving a pitiful look.

"I really should have listened to Malice's warnings.."

"Well, it happened regardless," said the woman said, hugging her girlfriend. "And if anything, we all did learn some lessons from the whole event. I know I learned that Thrasher was even more like Becky than I think anyone would like."

The kids during this, once Josephine ended the story with her arms crossed, looked over at the adults.

"Wow, I guess your moms really had wanted that to go well," Maci said, not fulling understanding why anyone would want to kidnap her best friend. "I'm sorry Stupid Shark Teeth messed up that whole day for you all."

Josephine gave out a pitiful sigh. "What's worse is that he's going to have a sibling. There's going to be two of them, Maci. Two of them. And he introduced himself as a future villain to Macro City and my future kidnapper! What if he ends up even worse when we're all grown up? What if he keeps making plans to kidnap me? His parents aren't going to stop him. I mean, they were even encouraging him!"

Maci took a deep breath, standing straight up with a face full of determination, saying, "It's alright, Jose, because if he tries to again, I'll beat up his stupid teeth! No one is going to kidnap my friend and just away from it! And if he becomes worst and is Macro City's new bad guy when we're all big, then… then…" Maci thought for a second before blurting out, "Then I'll be Macro City's new hero! He won't get away with these or any future crimes! I promise!"

Josephine looked at her younger friend, smiling a bit before hugging her. "Thank you, Maci."

The outburst from Maci and caught the adults' attention before Malice directed her gaze toward Mack. "Well, I see that her hero phase isn't a phase now."

* * *

**AN: All of these chapters are out of order, but in case of age order being truly important to anyone. Spoiler warning for names of fan ocs for future chapters.**

**Thrasher **

**Hauyne **

**Josephine **

**Maci **

**Kornerupine and ****Ibis **

**Anthophila and Speed**


	6. 6: Playdate (2)

**Playdate (2):**

* * *

This meeting of The Annual Council of Virtue was technically very important for all leaders. It was the day that all current future heirs to kingdoms were to be brought so that they could be introduced to the current leaders of now and the other future heirs in hopes of allied kingdoms.

Mayapple was happy to introduce Josephine to the other future rulers, beaming with pride each time the girl in green seemed to get along with the other children despite being a bit sad at her deadpan tone to them. That was until she saw some familiar faces with their own heirs and got excited while the two took a break on a bench, having a bit of a snack.

"Malachite! Ariella! Over here!" Mayapple called over to them, waving a hand while Josephine turned to look at the ogre prince in green and dwarf princess in blue who had two children with them. The older of the two held onto one of the younger girl's hands with one of her own and Malachite's hand with the other, wearing bold blue with a more pastel blue bow on her head while being used as a headband for her light green hair. The younger girl, whose other hand held onto Ariella's. With reddish skin and horns, it was strange seeing what at first seem to be an ogre child with red hair and dull green eyes combined with very short stature. The younger girl's own colors had a few mixes of blues and green, a few shades of teals thrown into with an almost matching bow that the older child had.

"Pinkbutt! Great to see you!" Ariella cheered, smiling wide that almost reminded Josephine of Crow, causing the human child to begin to feel slightly uncomfortable.

"So, this is little Josephine?" Malachite's softer smile in comparison helped convinced Josephine to give an unsure wave of hello. "I must say, Little Mint, you have a fabolous color sense already."

Ariella rolled her eyes before moving to looking to the two girls the two had. "Hauyne, Korn, Pinkbutt here is Princess Mayapple, and this is her daughter Josephine. Pinkbutt, Minty, this is our daughter Kornerupine and our niece Hauyne."

Kornerupine waved from behind Hauyne, the older ogre child having moved to shield her cousin with her chest puffed out as Mayapple squealed at the two.

"Aw, you look so precious! I didn't even know ogres and dwarves could have-Wait, niece?"

Josephine got off the bench, already getting the clue that the adults were going to be catching up on stuff again and walked closer to the two after stuffing the rest of her snacks into a pastel green lunchbox. "Come on, they're going to be like this for a bit until the meeting's called. I got enough snacks if you two want any."

Both of the other two girls looked at each other, then to the parents before proceeding to follow the human to another bench that was away from the adults yet still in their eyesight. Hauyne called out to them as they walked away, "Kor and I are going to eat with Josephine, Uncle!"

Malachite gave a soft sigh before nodding and double-checking where the three went.

Once all three were seated, Kornerupine peaked into the lunchbox as Hauyne had no problem with taking the apple Josephine offered.

"So, you two are going to grow up as co-rulers? Or is it that Kornerupie… Kornerupee-" Josephine huffed in frustration at trying to properly pronounce the half-dwarf's name. Kornerupine giggled before taking some of the cheese she noticed the other had.

"You can call me Korne. Papa's the only one that really uses my full name," she explained as she enjoyed the squishy cheese. "This is good."

"Thanks. So are you ending up as the ruler of Winterdown then and Hauyne as Sukochi's future princess?"

"Nope." The girl in teal popped the last part of the word, sitting back with her legs crossed. Josephine tilted her head in utter confusion. Hauyne shifted uncomfortably a bit, holding the apple tight in her large hands.

"I've actually started beginning courses for hero training at school so I could try to get into a hero school later," the golden-eyed girl explained, continuing to munch on the apple. Josephine blinked as she held onto a few honey sticks. "I'm really here because of stuff back home being... tough."

"Aunt Tephra's a bolting beach," Kornerupine announced with no problem whatsoever. Hauyne flinched as Josephine took the time to blink again.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"I feel lost in this."

"My mom," Hauyne began, looking more uncomfortable by the word. "Was overthrown by Uncle Malachite and Aunt Ariella… she was continuing a bad war and all against Aunt Ariella's people. Well, she's _sort of_ in prison? It's… complicated?" Hauyne rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "There's a lot of that kingdom stuff the adults have to talk about, and it gets confusing trying to keep up with it."

"What about your dad?"

"I don't know anything about him…"

Josephine thought for a moment. Despite being friends with Maci, it was easy to forget that there was a blessing to having both parents in her life. Though she's never met anyone who had the exact opposite situation.

"Not that it's bad!" Hauyne said upon seeing the expression the human girl was displaying. "Aunt Ariella and Uncle Malachite do make sure I'm safe and all and Uncle does try to get my mom to be a part of my life! And I got an awesome little cousin to protect!"

"Overprotect, more like," Kornerupine corrected with a teasing smile, giving a playful shove at Hauyne, who in turn laughed it off since the size difference between the two meant the shove didn't even budge her. "At least I get to show off how awesome you're going to be in front of all of these other future princesses! I'll bet they'll be so jealous that their future heroes aren't going to be anything like you!"

Josephine smiled slightly as she continued to eat while looking at the two interact with each other.

"I'd almost feel sorry for whoever Sukochi's future villain is."

"Uhhhhhh," both of the two girls paused in what they were doing to look questionable at Josephine then at each other in uncertainty.

"What?"

"Sukochi doesn't really… get bad guys? I mean, like, permanent bad guys? We get temporary ones now and then, but they never stick around," Kornerupine stated, moving and twiddling her fingers in an awkward manner.

"... Can we switch kingdoms?"

Hauyne and Kornerupine tilted their heads. Josephine sighed in response.

"Alright, let me tell you about the Aves family back in Macro City."

* * *

**AN**:

**For anyone curious, 'Aves' is the class for birds. Since the names of Crow's family have the theme of birds, it made some sense that the last name would reflect such as well. **

**And for anyone who didn't know and thought it was weird for having Crow's son be named 'Thrasher,' I'd like to direct you to a group of birds that's part of the order Passeriformes and the family of Mimidae, Thrashers. **


	7. 7: To Hate

**To Hate:**

* * *

If anyone had asked Kaptain Man how he got into the situation he was in now, he would point to Mack, Guryon, and Dash and blame them for not warning him ten years ago. He would have thought that in their report on what they found in Crow's castle, they would have warned him about the bolting kid that was now sticking his tongue out at Sukochi's hero stuck in anti-hero glue. The origin of the glue having been from the gun that was fired from his long-time crush Becky. Kaptain Man would have sighed at the idea that she came in person to Sukochi to deal with him if it _wasn't for that kid_. Why was the brat sticking his tongue out at him?

"Why are you sticking your tongue out at him?"

Oh thank goodness, Becky noticed! Surely his love would-

"I'm gonna make mean faces at him, Mom, just so that he feels humiliation."

Mom…? Mom…?

The tengu hero looked at the kid closer before he noticed Becky's green eyes, beauty mark, and pointed ears as part of the kid's features. Yet, with the blonde locks and sharp teeth, then that meant the father was likely… Oh bolts…

* * *

"Becky! No! You and Crow!? Becky!?"

Thrasher stared at the crying Sukochi hero in confusion as his mother facepalmed before turning to the minions currently taking away the gold from the vault they were ransacking. "We have orders to have this vault empty within the time limit, minions."

"Yes Becky!"

"Mom, what's the crybaby going on about?"

"Who are you to call the great Kaptain Man a crybaby!" Thrasher ignored the glued superhero.

"Just a hero that didn't like that I rejected his love letter. Don't think too hard about it, Thrasher, he's just shocked."

"Becky! My white-haired goddess, please!"

Thrasher slowly turned his head towards the still yelling and crying Kaptain Man with glaring eyes as Becky led him away to join up with the minions.

Kaptain Man felt himself shiver.

* * *

Once the job was done and they were back on the Conder, Becky soon found Thrasher scribbling on what looked like blueprints. It wasn't something anyone on the airship was really surprised about when the boy took an interest in mechanics and engineering. As secretary still, Becky knew for a fact that most of her son's allowance went into pet-project prototype weapons.

Holding a cup of coffee, she walked over to take a glimpse of the plans.

"What are you making this time?" she asked.

"Making an anti-flying gun so that I can beat up Kaptain Man when I'm older." Whelp, she shouldn't have been that surprised by the answer, but there it was.

Meanwhile, in Sukochi, Kaptain Man finally had gotten help in getting free from the glue by Dash before he shivered once more.

"You okay, Kapt?" asked the bee. Kaptain Man looked to where the Conder had been last seen flying.

"I feel a disturbance in my future well-being."


	8. 8: School Days Part 1

**8: School Days Part 1:**

* * *

Josephine didn't think she'd end up hating Macro City High. And for all of her middle school, freshman, sophomore, and the first half of the semester for junior years, she didn't! She was a student that got Bs and As, already had been made class representative for both freshman and sophomore years! As the future princess of Macro City, she made sure to keep the best reputation possible among both the student body and staff! She made sure to work for it all! Already, she set her eyes in her junior year to be elected to Student Council to solidify a political presence she'd need.

There were some benefits to being a child of magic. Despite being younger than she actually looked, giving the appearance of being at least sixteen when she was really a bit younger than that, her creation had made her be as developed mentally as she was physical. Plus her own ability to wield magic was a plus in keeping her reputation up.

That all changed in the middle of the first semester of her junior year.

All because of _him_.

The day had started normally. She had gotten up in the morning, had breakfast with her mothers and Farrah Day, got ready for school, walking the way as her morning exercise while Farrah Day went ahead to join the middle school group. The redhead had been checking the updates on her phone when she had bumped into one of the middle school students that the school also taught, causing the ten-year-old to drop her school supplies.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" Josephine put on a friendly face and she bent down to help out the younger girl. It was something she learned after a while at the beginning of her own middle school days. People just liked her more if she forced a smile on her face instead of keeping her usual deadpan expression. "Here, let me help you." One of the notebooks was completely blank, many of the supplies seemed brand new. Josephine blinked before looking at the student she had just bumped into.

At ten years old, the fifth grader already had clear signs of potentially growing up to be beautiful. With platinum blonde locks done in a bob style around a round face, eyes already showing to shape into almond-like shape, and slightly tan skin, high school years had the potential to be very kind to the child. If not, then maybe her parents if the status of the purple themed clothing the blonde wore were anything to judge by. The only thing that really unsettled Josephine was the amber color of the eyes.

"Um, hello?" Josephine blinked as she suddenly realized that she had dazed off, the younger girl now waving her hands in front of her face. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes! Sorry about that!" Josephine stood up after handing the supplies she picked up for the other to her. Holding her hand out while keeping a smile on her face, she said, "I'm Josephine." Instead of shaking her hand, the blonde made a curtsy, albeit a bit clumsy due to holding all the supplies.

"I'm Ibis." Why did that name seem so familiar?

"Oh, what a pretty nam-" Josephine was quickly interrupted by the sound of something be smacked behind her and a male's voice.

"Hey, Bissy, Ginger here giving you trouble?"

Josephine's blue eyes widen as she turned around to see a face she thought was long gone from her childhood. Now in front of her was Thrasher Aves, now seventeen years old, with long blonde hair that was tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck, the same green eyes, beauty mark, and pointed ears that once tormented her at the thought of future kidnappings. He seemed to have had left the purple theme to the girl behind her, who she now realized was 'Bissy' Aves, and had a black turtleneck, black fingerless gloves, and black combat boots with his dark blue jeans tucked in. In his hands was a package of cigarettes, the source of the smacking sound having been him getting ready to pull one out to smoke. She almost felt her eye twitch at the rule-breaking he already was making in front of her, even more so when he dared to _grin_ at her.

"No, she was just being nice, Big Brother!" Ibis answered, smiling practically oblivious to the situation going on.

"Good, now get along to your homeroom, don't want you late on our first day." With that Ibis hurried off into the school.

Thrasher chuckled as he pulled a cigarette out and light it, breathing in deep as he put the rest of the pack away. He proceeded to blow out the smoke right into Josephine's face, causing her to cough and wave the smoke away while glaring at him.

"Well, this is surprising, Josephine. I would have thought we wouldn't meet again until our careers took off."

"What are you doing here, Aves?" She snarled, clenching her fists as she continued to glare at the light blonde.

"Josephine, my future victim, my pawn of my plans, my little carrot-top, don't just assume that I'm all here willingly," Thrasher snarled back, yet still keeping his grin up. "My sweet little baby sister wanted to have some social interaction, homeschooling with all the minions only gives so much for my social moth of a sibling. I'm here to make sure that she stays safe, she is a future villain in the making after all."

Josephine took a deep breath in, trying to calm herself. "Just stay the bolt away from me and any rule breaking, which includes _that_." She pointed at the cigarette in his mouth. "How did you even get those, you're not of age."

Thrasher chuckled darkly as he leaned down to her height. "Want to get hooked too, Princess?"

She sneered and pushed him away before heading into the school, not noticing the glint of mischief in the older boy's eyes.

* * *

It only got worst from there. When Josephine got all her stuff ready and entered her homeroom class, she thought that she would just have to deal with seeing Thrasher in the halls at the minimum. She was wrong when the teacher coughed to get all the students' attention, most of which were joking around, talking, or finishing up homework they didn't complete the night before.

"Attention class, we've recently have a new transfer student today," the teacher began, dread already pooling at Josephine's feet. The teacher opened the door, offering a very nervous smile to let none other than Thrasher in. "How about you come in and introduce yourself to the class?"

Thrasher walked into the classroom, earning gasps and stares from all the other students. He eyed Josephine easily, her being in the second row and wearing pastel coloring, along with her red hair making it hard for her to just blend into the crowd. He turned his attention to the rest of the class, already a mischievous smile on her face once more showing sharp teeth.

"Name's Thrasher Aves. Hi, how ya doing?"

Josephine suppressed a groan as she could already imagine the hell the rest of her school year was going to be.


	9. 9: Welcome Home

**9: Welcome Home**

* * *

The many species of Insektia had various of ways for new generations to enter the world. It was just something everyone in the kingdom agreed to simple accept when Princess Apoidea brought peace to them all and united them under one kingdom.

For the mantis species, death had a high chance to happen for the males, hence why most of the palace guards were female. For dragonflies, water was necessary.

For the bees, resting the young was a whole community thing, and it was just accepted that most, if not all of them, were in some way related to each other. It was accepted that most of them were feed specific honey as larvae to have the type of job they had as adults. Once they were adults, they could have any honey since it wouldn't change the adult's current job or position.

Hence why no bee larvae was never given royal honey.

Until recently.

Princess Apoidea knew that sooner or later, she would had to have an heir to rule Insektia. She would not live forever, she was but mortal after all. And one could never expect to live to a full lifetime. She had actually hoped to choose and prepare an heir before the honey market crashed, but the said event, being kidnapped by Crow and making sure Insektia was but back into business with the gold from the treasure and the restarted honey market all had delayed her decision. The larvae she could have chosen from already had grown up and broken out of the honey cell nurseries, meaning when her decision was made, it was from a different laying.

The bee princess flew up to the nursery, two of her four eyes furrowed in both curiosity and concern. It was mostly empty, almost all of the residents that had once occupied the structured cells already grow out as well.

Almost all of them.

There was still one.

Apoidea lowered herself to the ground to rest on her legs, keeping her four ruby eyes on the sealed golden cell in front of her now. Lifting a gloved hand to the waxy cover, she sighed softly before resting her forehead on it and closing her eyes. There was only one opening to the cell, made when the egg inside hatched so that the larvae inside could be fed the royal honey and royal jelly to become the next princess. Her heir. Her 'daughter.'

She tested the term out softly on her tongue. Even now, after all these years, it was still almost foreign to her, and to many of the other bees who lived in Insektia. The generations that had been laid and nurtured after she became the princess to the whole kingdom, for all of the species, had adopted the term, along with the word 'son,' from other kingdoms. They were the ones who used it willingly out in the open.

Apoidea, her generation, and the generations before them hadn't. They had been laid, nurtured, and grown up in a land of war, all of the species fighting each other, and even their own species fighting among themselves. They had started in a world where they couldn't think about who was a sibling, a cousin, who was actually family. A world, a land, where anyone one of them could be killed in a battle, or in her own case, assassinated by another bee princess or a mantis, moth, dragonfly, or scorpion that wanted to destroy her own hive after all the others had been killed. She had been the last one before she had taken rule.

The princess shivered and swallowed back a slight sob, clenched the hand that was still up against the cell.

She had only known two of the other bee princesses before the end of the war, both having been members of her hive at the time. Or rather, their hive.

Hymenoptera would have been what the other kingdoms would have referred her as Apoidea's 'mother.' She had been relentless on the workers and soldiers, a proud and strong princess that knew what she wanted, how to obtain it, and how far she could push others to get it. A bee with more dark stripes than yellow, she had already gathered and built her hive to an incredible level of power before her death. She had been as strict on Apoidea and Apocrita on how to rule a hive as she had been on how a worker or soldier should do their job. Hymenoptera had not been kind. Hymenoptera had never smiled, always the one to give the cold shoulder. But she had made sure there had been a future for her 'daughters', for their hive. She had taken the blow all to make sure both Apoidea and Apocrita could flee with their subjects. Hymenoptera had never cared for herself.

Apocrita had been her cell-sharer, what Apoidea knew the humans would call her 'twin.' A pure accident on a worker's part of having two eggs in the same cell. But it had paid off. Apocrita had taken charge of what remained of the hive after Hymenoptera's death. She had rebuilt them and made sure they all could fight, no matter if worker or soldier. Apocrita had been vengeful, protective, constantly paranoid of the other species when news broke out of the destroyed hives of the other former bee princesses. It had been such a contrast to Apoidea's ways of trying to get up from the event.

Apoidea had offered the remaining bees of those hives a home in theirs. Apocrita had wanted them all to learn to fight to defeat all the other species. Apoidea tried to make peace those they could. They had to force themselves to go separate ways to avoid killing the other.

It had been no surprise for news from the part of the hive that went with Apocrita to come back without her. It had been no surprise that Apocrita had went down fighting and spitting in the face of the scorpions that finally finished her off.

Apoidea opened her eyes slightly as she forced herself to turn around, sitting to lean her back on the wax seal of the cell now behind her. She took a big breath, trying to quiet down the low sobs trying to break free from her.

So much depended on the next princess to keep the peace. To make sure those days never happened again. There had been so much work to make sure peace between the species of Insektia could even begin, diplomacy with the ones that had taken the others down to secure a future, any future… Apoidea shuddered to think of preparing her heir on how to cope with all of this.

* * *

Who was she? Why was she crying?

A repeat of those thoughts went through her own mind, the golden hue of her… room? Yes, room, blocking a clear view of the owner of the silhouette against one of the walls. She tried to stand up, but there wasn't enough room, forcing her to crawl to the wall with a hole in the bottom of it. She had learned early that food came that the hole, but this silhouette wasn't the same as the one that brought food.

In her eyes, everything in the room was golden-hued. There were darker golds, almost black but still a golden hue everywhere. She pressed a hand slowly to the wall, then pressing her head against it, trying to hear the other. There were no words still. Maybe if she went out to hug them, they'd feel better? But there wasn't a clear way to really open… there wasn't a door.

She began to knock on the thin wall.

* * *

Apoidea's four red eyes opened wide at the sound, quickly scrambling to turn around and stand up, her wing flapping from being startled by the noise. Realizing what was happening, she began to scrape at the wax seal, trying to help the other out. Luckily, the new princess seemed to get an idea of what to do and began to scrape and pound on the wall, cracking it little by little.

Ten minutes of this soon gave way to result, the inhabitant blinking at the hard new light and colors. Apoidea reached her hands out, helping the other up and leading her away from the cell, helping her to get used to the new amount of room around her.

She looked so much like Apoidea, it was almost comical. The same red eyes looked back at her. The dark blues and golden yellows almost the same shade, yet slightly deeper. The main differences came in the form of clothing. The jewel the signified a bee princess was on top of her head, seemingly a violet amethyst. The dress was more flowing at the bottom, instead of the tight form Apoidea's was. She could actually see the yellow shoes with a white ball of fuzz on each. Her fuzz seemed even softer, practically child-like. Apoidea couldn't help but be amused as she took in all the childish features her heir possessed.

The heir in question was looking back at Apoidea, almost looking entranced before shaking out whatever daze she had been in and bringing in the current princess for a hug. Apoidea was taken a bit by surprise before she smiled softly and hugged are back.

"Hello, Anthophila. Welcome home."

* * *

**AN**:

**I should have mentioned in previous chapters, but requests are welcomed for future chapters. **


	10. 10: Return of Farrah Day

**10: Rescue: Return of Farrah Day**

* * *

Maci panted, regaining her breath as the villain feel the ground in unconsciousness. The scientist was a newcomer to villainy, but it seemed that they had the right idea for the location. Mayapple quickly handcuffed the scientist, worn smile on the older woman's face. While Mayapple had on her knight armor, Maci's own armor bore a heavy resemblance to Mack's, albeit red with yellow flames on the boot-rollerskates. While she wielded Mack's sword in her left hand, the teen girl had makeshift the glove of her right to prepare bombs to throw as a ranged attack at the enemy.

"Thanks for the help Maci."

"Oh, no problem at all, Mrs. M!"

"Now let's find Josephine. Officers, you take care of our bad guy here."

The whole situation had been what many of the people would consider the first kidnapping of future-princess Josephine. The newcomer scientist, a Dr. Hydel, had kidnapped Josephine for some sort of experiment in the former Adept Co. lab.

Maci Mulder had thought nothing more about the location other than that it was the lab of a villain long gone from Macro City. Mayapple, however, had been horrified to find out about the location. The traps set added with the maze of the halls had left the two confused at each turn.

By the time they had located Josephine, she herself had already broken out of her own cell and in a large room with a glowing orb in a glass tube. Neither Maci or Mayapple were on the same floor as the room though both on opposite sides of the room behind glass panels that were a floor above.

"Josey!" Maci yelled from her side, swing the sword to try and break the window. "Gah!" The force of the window bounced the swing back onto the hero-wanna be in red, causing her to fall back.

Mayapple already was running around to try and find where the exit to the room was, though her eyes always went back to the glowing orb. Something about it was so familiar.

"Are you alright, Maci?" Josephine yelled back, moving to the center of the room so that she could see both her mother and childhood friend.

"Yeah, just a bruised ego," was the dark brunette's reply.

"Josephine, can you see a way out?!" Mayapple asked, ending up in the same room as Maci with little success in finding a way down to the girl in green.

"The door I went through closed shut and locked behind me!"

"Aw bolts!"

"Maci! Language!"

Josephine looked around the room again before turning to the orb in the tube near her. "Do… do either of you know what this is?" The orb was sending sparks striking its container, a bright white-blue glow around each bolt.

"No? I guess it sort of looks like what happens when one of Dad's energy attacks was blocked in that video?" Maci said with little confidence, thinking back to the internet video of her dad's first defeat as a hero against Crow. "Except, like… almost white?"

Mayapple panicked, continuing to try and see the door Josephine mentioned from where she was at. "I have an idea of what it is… Josephine, whatever you do, don't touch it!"

"There has to be some way to break these windows!" Maci snarled, moving to another window and throwing one of her bombs at it and swinging the sword to hit it with an energy blast. The window still remained. "Oh come on!"

Josephine watched the others' efforts in trying to get her out before turning her attention to the tube containing the orb and what seemed to be a computer next to it. "Hold on, maybe this has an answer!"

"Josephine!"

The redhead turned the computer on and began looking through the logs, trying to figure out something that controlled the door. Seeing something saying [DOOR READY OPEN: INVALID], she began to work on that angle. Hearing something open up, Josephine looked to see that it was the tube containing the orb that had been shut done, not the door. And the orb was floating towards her.

She immediately tried to run the other way. "Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Not today! Bolts!"

"Josephine, language!"

"A little busy on something else, Mom!"

Mayapple and Maci began to speed up on their efforts, Mayapple still trying to find a way to the door to the room while Maci focused on breaking in. Luckily, Mayapple managed to find the way down, dragging Maci with her down a flight of stairs to the locked door. Maci immediately threw a bomb, and thankfully the door not causing remaining after the blast.

The amount of time that it took was enough for Josephine to trip over and the orb to float into her lap… and just remain there.

All three women stared in utter confusion, Maci and Josephine from trying to figure out what exactly was going on, and Mayapple from figuring out why her fear wasn't justified. Lifting it up, Josephine tilted her head in even more puzzlement.

"Huh, Maci was right, it's… just… energy. Manifested energy," she said quietly. Maci bent down to try and look at it closer while Mayapple put away her shock baton for the moment.

"Wonder what's so important about this thing," Maci said, tilting her head.

"More on how Hydel even got it…" Mayapple said, slowly approaching and reaching out to help Josephine up. "Come on, let's go home."

"Mom?"

"Mrs. M?"

Both of the teens looked at Mayapple with confused glances. The princess sighed slightly.

"I'll explain back at the palace, alright? But for now, we should put it back."

Josephine held a long silence as she looked back at the orb before replying.

"I can't. It's.. stuck to me?"

"... Oh."

"Maybe try to use your magic to get it off?" Maci suggested as Mayapple immediately against the idea.

"Wait, no, Josephine don-!"

The room was soon blinded by a bright light as Josephine had already started to begin the to use her magic. None of them knew what had happened as it began to fade and the glow slowly surrounded and centered a small humanoid shape. One that was very familiar to Mayapple.

"Hi, pretty ladies!"

* * *

"Okay, so, just to make sure I got all of this down, this girl… energy… thing, no offense Farrah Day," Maci started, giving the princess made of pure energy an awkward smile before returning her attention to Mayapple, the group of four plus Malice in the kitchen of Macro City's Palace. "She's _technically_ Josephine's half-sister? That you made? Before meeting Malice?"

"I have to say, Mayapple dear, this really outshines a lot of members of the Syndicate in what they'd do," said mentioned enchantress spoke out, giving a small coy smile at the princess in pink. Mayapple bit her lower lip as she looked at the kitchen counter.

"Yeah, I suppose you could say that."

Josephine had remained quiet through the entire explanation, the question coming up, all to just keep staring at Farrah Day. The energy princess was busy eating some batteries, giggling like a little kid. Or.. was she an actual little kid now?

"Well, as wonderful as this revelation is, dearie," Malice voiced, also looking at Farrah Day while still talking to Mayapple. "I'm afraid we do have to figure out what to do with her. After all, you did try to destroy her before and that didn't exactly turn out as planned considering our current situation, she has the potential of being captured again and being used for her power, and well… this _is_ a big thing to keep from both Josephine and I. I know that _we_ keep business and our private life separate, but for Josephine…"

All three looked over to Josephine, the girl still staring at Farrah Day who now was staring back.

"Um… Josephine?" Maci asked.

"... We're sisters," Josephine finally uttered. "I have a sister. Made of pure energy. Like how I'm made of magic."

"Technically there is a difference in how much magic, but hypothetically yes," Malice said slowly.

Josephine lowered her gaze, practically looking at her own hands. Farrah Day looked to everyone else at this point.

"You all talked about me, but I'm a bit out of the loop of what happened while I was out!" The cheerful smile was disturbing enough to have the adults shivering at the true meaning.

"Sheesh, you really are going to need to catch up on all your school work," Maci tried to joke. There was so much tension in the room, it felt about time to try and lessen it about.

"School?"

"She can live here," Josephine spoke up, still not looking at anyone. "Go to school and all. If that whole ordeal happened because of her power and how child-like she is… she might be a child in the end and all. Maybe the school can teach her how to function in society at least? It's not as if she'd be alone, she's probably around the mental age of nine or ten, about the time to enter middle school and the closest school has both middle and high school grade in the same building. I could still be there for her."

"What about the red lady?"

"Hero training," Maci replied. "Starts this semester for me."

"Mayapple?" Malice looked over at the light brunette. Mayapple twiddled her thumbs, a bit hesitant at the idea.

"I… suppose that'd be a good idea."

"Then I think it's settled. Welcome to the family, Farrah Day."

* * *

**AN:**

**To Background Guy: The reason why Farrah Day doesn't have a kid is that in this setting, she is still treated like a kid and compared to the other characters even in the game, she's pretty much a child. Since this fanfiction is centered around the idea of the children of the characters in the game (with a few mentions of character from the comics), and there is a certain event that happens in the comic concerning Farrah Day, there isn't much sense for her to have a child to be with. Also, she's made of pure energy. Which is in of itself creates some more problems in writing a child for her. **

**I can write Josephine as a child of magic yet still 'human' because she's still not _pure_ magic, there are suppose to be some actual parts of Malice and Mayapple in her to prevent that and to keep her from being like Farrah Day in the sense of being capable of reaching god-like powerful/seeking more and more power for the sake of power. **

**So I hope I can at least make up for the lack of a Farrah Day child by still bringing Farrah Day into these (sorts) one-shots.**


	11. 11: Of Princesses and Princes

**11: Of Princesses and Princes**

* * *

"SEE! I TOLD YOU I CAN BE A PRINCESS!"

This is what both Crow and Becky woke to on the Condor in their room. Crow groaned as they pulled away from each and doubled checked the red lights on the digital clock for the time.

3 am.

The kids were up at 3 am.

He let out a groan as he smacked his face into the pillow. Was he proud that his kids could cause trouble at such a young age? Yes. Didn't mean he had to like it when it bothered him and Becky. Said white-haired woman was already getting up, Crow slowly following to see what was causing Ibis to yell at what they assumed was Thrasher about something on being able to be a princess.

Ibis was a curious matter in the family. Almost the opposite of Thrasher in a way. If either Crow or Becky had to sum up the two with one sentence for each, it would be the following:

Thrasher was what everyone feared a child between them would be.

Ibis was what everyone didn't expect to come from them.

Thrasher had Crow's ambition and mechanical genius while also having Becky's ruthlessness and eye for details. And the boy had managed to have one bolt of a silver tongue, aided by already becoming quite a looker if all the love letters from his classmates were anything to indicate from. Ever since the kidnapping of Mayapple that poker night, he was nothing but insistent on learning everything on villainy he could get his hands on when he wasn't working on a personal project or future plans for the day Crow and Becky would actually allow him to go on his own missions. Truly the worst trait he had for villainy was how obsessed he could get over a challenge.

Ibis was… precious, if a word really had to be chosen. At the moment, a little girl with big dreams, no doubt ambitious as much as her father and brother. But she just didn't seem quite nefarious in comparison to anyone in the family. She was so cheerful most of the time, making friends with various minions and now at her school, just a bundle of… happiness and joy. It was enough to make a bad guy sick at times. But then she turns around at times and spread mean rumors about the very people she had made friends with. So she wasn't anymore near 'good-guy' levels, but she wasn't… evil necessarily? Plus she wanted to be a princess. Not a villainess. Just a princess.

By the time Becky and Crow got to the armory where their children were, they could see Ibis reaching up for a packet of papers Thrasher was holding up and away from his little sister.

"Thrasher! Come on! I just need to sign it!"

"No! You're not even of age, you wouldn't count as one, it would be either Mom or Dad given the title!"

"Thrashy! Come on! You're being unfair!"

"We're bad guys! What, you're expecting sunshine, rainbows, and ice cream farting unicorns!?"

"I'm sure if you could say that to the princess council in that deep voice the cheerleaders giggle and sigh over, you could convince them to trust us! More importantly me!"

"What is going on?!" Crow yelled, annoyed at the fact that both of the two were fully dressed at this time. "Did you two even go to bed last night?!"

"Yes," both answered, Ibis already putting on the look of utter innocence while Thrasher folded his arms in front of his chest.

"What this about being a princess?" Becky asked, walking over to Thrasher to get the papers from his hands.

"I found some papers on your desk, Mommy, and they were about how I can be a princess! See here?" the little girl got on her tippy toes while pointing towards the bottom of the first page, a large grin showing her sharp teeth on full display. "The empire can be a kingdom, which means I can be a princess!"

Becky stared at the paperwork before slowly turning to Crow, who already turned around to muffled his own laughter.

"Oh bolts, I didn't know you still had that paperwork, Becky."

"I actually did forget about it."

"... What?" Thrasher uttered out, a complete look of bewilderment on his face. Becky sighed and looked to the side.

"Does that even still qualify? You know, since that day?" Crow chuckled as he got closer to look at the paperwork. Ibis was squealing, bouncing up and down in excitement.

"No. Since the empire did fall and we had to rebuild it, new paperwork would be needed in order for it to be valid."

Ibis's face immediately fell to a frown. "Aw bolts." Thrasher was more just confused.

"Mom, Dad?"

Crow chuckled more and he clapped his hands. "Alright you two, you want to hear about the time your mother double-crossed me and for a short amount of time was a princess? It's not like we're going back to sleep anyways."

Ibis gasped at this information. "Yes!"

"... Why not. Might as well learn how to avoid on in the future," Thrasher shrugged as the family went to the lobby for story time.


	12. 12: School Days Part 2

**12: School Days Part 2**

* * *

"Bolt off, Ursa," Lynx hissed as he noticed the shadow looming over his shoulder.

Lynx Skywald was the son of a highly respected and strict officer of the law and would be classified as a nerd at first glance with his bowtie, vest sweater, slacks, and black loafers. A complete teacher's pet in the classroom was his reputation so far now, not likely to change in his junior year if he had to really guess. His light brown hair was swept to the side, casting a shadow over his own face as he tried to light the cigarette.

'_Darn it, the delinquents make this look so easy!'_ he thought.

"I'm not sure who this Ursa gal is, but I can assure you that your method of lighting that up isn't going to work anytime soon."

Lynx looked behind him, grey eyes meeting green as he realized the owner of the shadow wasn't his sister but the new student Thrasher Aves, the blonde already with a lighter out and offering it to him. Embarrassed, Lynx leaned over to accept the light and take in the nicotine. Then proceeded to cough as Thrasher laughed above him.

"And here I thought you were surprising me with a secret 'bad boy' side," Thrasher joked, his own cigarette teasing the coughing brunette and earning him a glare.

"What, afraid of competition for the school's new bad boy?" Lynx mocked putting out the cigarette and stomping it to pieces.

"Ah, so you've heard of me."

"You didn't exactly make a subtle entrance with the fight with Miss Perfect earlier."

Thrasher smirked at the mention of what had happened during lunch on his first day.

He had picked out an easy victim in a freckled freshman named Kells Handel, son to one of the small time heroes. The scrawny brunette had actually started the whole mess, to get technical. Somehow the kid had gotten word of Thrasher being the son of Crow and had been dared by some of his friends to put him in his place at school. It was laughable how easy it was to make Freckles cower and running for help. Of course, help for Kells came in the form of Josephine, which caused a whole other scene as she drilled all the rules into him. Said rules had gone in one ear and out the other, honestly, as he had thrown a punch at the future princess.

Speaking of the whole matter…

"Well, since we're talking about that, I was asking around, and everyone said that _you_ were the one who let it out to Kells about my parents." He hooked a finger under the bowtie and pulled Lynx up in order to have his mouth near his ear.

Lynx hissed at the tug, moving his hand to reach under the tie in order to breath.

"Yeah, I mentioned the whole Aves family thing to a bunch of people. Nothing wrong with warning the public that a potential future baddie is in town. Or rather, in this case, school."

"Anything told to the middle schoolers?"

"I don't deal with them. So unless someone here told a younger sibling, your sister should be safe from that reputation if that's what you're worried about. Now let me go, Bird Boy."

Thrasher tugged harder, smirking as he glared down on the other junior, his own cigarette almost getting crunched between his razor-sharp teeth.

"And let a potential source of information go so willingly, Skywald? I think you _know_ my answer."

"Hey, at least take me out to dinner first if you're going to be using me," the other joked, actually giving a playful shove towards the other. Thrasher rolled his eyes and dropped the grey-eyed teen.

"Please, you can't even light or smoke a cigarette correctly."

Lynx gasped as he rubbed his throat, taking in all the air as he said, "Well, guess we're at an impasse then." Thrasher looked at him as he folded his arms over the back of the bench, raising a brow.

"Well, I _could_ teach you how to actually smoke. And other things to do with the bad boy persona. And in exchange, you lend me a little information on the other students."

Lynx scoffed.

"Yeah, sure, precious son of the grand officer Skywald turning delinquent because of a villain's son. As if."

"You were trying to smoke before I approached you, you didn't need any help to want to break a few rules."

Thrasher held a hand out, leaning down to Lynx, smiling as he lowered his voice to a whisper.

"So what's the difference if you get some help in succeeding in your own goals?"

Lynx stared back at him, then to his hand. Slowly, the light brunette shook the hand covered with a fingerless glove, looking back up to Thrasher with his own smirk that would have made a supervillain proud.

* * *

_8 years later_

Thrasher jolted up at the sound of laughter come from his secretary and best friend, looking over to see the older Lynx leaning against the wall with a lit cigarette in his hand.

"What's so funny, Kitty-cat?"

"Oh just remembering how we first met back in our junior year, Birdie."

"Oh yeah, your total failure at smoking. Anyway, I'm about done with these plans, you up for drinks later?"

"Well-"

"Ibis is bringing Pastel." Lynx almost gain a lovestruck expression at the mention of the other Aves secretary.

"Ricky's Bar?"

"Ricky's Bar."


	13. 13: Want

**13: Want**

**AN Warning: Most chapters that have Hauyne and Kornerupine as the main focus will usually be more dramatic.**

* * *

Hauyne looked down the dark stairs, a tray of food in one of her large hands. Her amber eyes glared towards the room that would be at the end of the hallway down there.

Next to her, Princess Kornerupine looked up at the near adult. Reaching an arm out, she enclosed her hand around her cousin's pinkie.

Near adulthood, the two truly would look different. Hauyne had a tall build, towering over most other female ogres in Sukochi. Behind a blue mask on her face, her build with large hands, long green hair, and muscled limbs made it clear that she was Tephra's daughter. A blue fighters outfit had become her signature outfit for her start as the new hero.

Kornerupine's had not changed much in her own appearance, her hair now reaching her waist while her height remained the same height as her own father's waist, a trait from her mother clear as both day and her red hair. Her own clothing had taken to combining aspects from both Winterdown and Sukochi, pride in each step of her heritage. Her own crown was a combination of both to symbolize her own rule.

Looking down the stairs, bright amber and dull green looking towards the same target.

"You don't have to do this, you know. We could always send a servant for this time as well."

"I need to confront this at some point. I can't live with myself if I let this go not done."

Kornerupine let her grip on Hauyne's finger go, watching her walk down with the food.

Hauyne's steps would echo through the dark hallways, the only source of light coming from behind her and the small, barely lit lanterns on the walls. She would not waver, continuing to glare at the metal door that came into view in the dim light.

Reaching it, she placed the tray on the slot in the middle, her gaze looking through the barred window into the cells.

Amber eyes glared back up, untidy long green hair hiding the furious face of a female ogre in black and white striped clothing. Her ankles were chained to the floor, hands chained so that she could reach the door to retrieve food, but still remain inside the cell should she ever try to break the door down, bags under her eyes emphasizing the glare even more.

"Breakfast, Mother."

Tephra growled, getting up and walking up to the window. She didn't take the food, keeping eye contact with Hauyne instead.

"So you finally decided to visit. Might as well get to the point. The key, girl, I want the key."

Hauyne narrowed her eyes, pushing the tray closer to the prisoner. Tephra huffed and snatched it, refusing to let her sneer go.

"I wanted us to be a family. I suppose neither of us will be getting what we want," Hauyne responded, turning away as her expression went more to something akin to sorrow.

"You could have been the rightful heir if you had just gone with me! You could still be the princess if you listen to me and overthrow that half-breed that claims she has a right to rule here! All you have to do is give me that key!"

Hauyne clenched her fists before releasing them and adjusting her mask.

"Mother, I _choose_ to not be Princess when Kor offered it to me. Uncle Malachite offered it to me when I started training. I had every opportunity, and I _refused_ them. Do you want to know why?"

Tephra didn't answer, merely huffing in an aggravated and disappointed tone.

"Because if I had known what _you_ had been planning all this time, what you had intended for me to be when you had me, had known you would have done all of _that_," Hauyne hissed, turning her head to glare towards her. "I would have _killed you._ Do you think I wanted you to be back down here? _I was the one who voted to have you executed_."

Approaching the cell again, Hauyne glared into Tephra's eyes.

"_I _organized how this cell was built. _I_ made it so that you will never escape. _I_ made it so that your arms and legs will be worn. _I_ refused to be Princess, _Mother_ because I would have never been fair. I would have made you suffer more before death. You should be _thankful_ that Kor is Sukochi's princess now, thankful that Aunt Ariella respected for Uncle Malachite's and Kor's decision to let you live after what you've done. We had wanted to be a family. We gave you the chance to let us be a family. You got off easy for what you did."

Turning around, Hauyne caught her breath, ignoring the small smirk that was starting to form on Tephra's face. That said smirk soon disappeared at the hero's next words.

"Besides, there is no key. For the door or the chains. There was never a key made."

With that, Hauyne left the screaming prisoner, walking back to upstairs, where Kornerupine was still waiting at the top. The princess took a look at the hero's appearance, giving a pitiful, concerned, smile.

"How did it go?"

Hauyne didn't reply, instead of getting done on her knees and pulling the dwarf-sized teen into a tight hug, her shoulder shaking. Kornerupine hugged her back, comforting her taller cousin as Hauyne gave into her own mourning.

"Hey, it's going to be alright, Hauyne. We're all going to be alright. Papa would have been proud of you," she whispered.

* * *

Ariella watched from the entrance way to the throne room into the hallway the two were in, still dressed in black, as she watched the two with a bitter smile. The dwarf turned her attention to the throne room, looking with heavy eyes at the black banners that would be taken down soon and to the throne covered in black cloth.

She still needed to head back to Winterdown to deal with the citizens and how the events within the past three months had affected them as well, but for now, a few minutes alone to deal with the aftermath of everything was required.

To want something doesn't have to mean that someone is selfish. The item wanted can be something that means everything to a person. What truly separates a villain wanting something and a hero wanting something is HOW they'll get what they want, and how far they'll go to have it.

Sometimes though, neither can have it, and all suffer from the consequences of them continuing to push further.


	14. 14: Magical

**14: Magical**

* * *

"Now, let's see here," Malice commented, flipping through the pages of a large, worn book. Behind the sorceress, a teenage Josephine held what seemed to be a doll version of her, squirming with fingerless sewn arms and it's baby blue button eyes seeming moving to find a way to escape."Which spell did you say you used again?"

"The... um… copy one," Josephine said, looking down in slight embarrassment. Malice hummed as she flipped to a certain page, looking at it then to the living doll.

"Well, as disturbing as the result of your effort is, it's quite… harmless, considering the spell's true intention," she said, giving a poke to the said result. "I have a feeling your mother's side is a reason for this."

"I can make them bigger!" Josephine protested before shying away a bit. "They just… always have button eyes. And they're not even always blue! Some of them get purple eyes or green!"

"In fairness, that last one would go better with your hair color, dearie."

"Mother!"

"What were you even planning to do with this spell?" Malice asked, handing the spell book to Josephine as she took the living doll into her own hands. "A disconnect between your intentions and what the spell was intended to be made for could result in something like this as well.

Josephine sighed, reading over the spell herself. "I wanted to practice combat…" Malice gave her a pointed look before shaking her head. Touching the middle of the forehead of the doll, it suddenly went limp before poofing into smoke.

"That would have been a bad idea. If it had worked out as you intended, you'd probably end up harming yourself. A hit against the copies transfers back onto the item or person it's a copy of."

A look of discomfort went across the teen's face at the information. "Right… I'll keep that in mind for the next training session with Mom…"

Malice smirked as she took back the spell book, flipping through the pages once more. The matter of raising Josephine had caused some adjustments when it came to her wielding magic. Malice had the luck of having once taught others in the matters of magic, but teaching a crowd professionally was still different from teaching only her daughter. It likely would have been harder if Josephine hadn't been as studious as she was, but the apple didn't seem to fall that far from the tree. There was a certain joy in being able to once again relate to someone else on the topic of magic for the enchantress, especially with her own child. Even Mayapple couldn't technically appreciate all of what Malice had learned over the course of a very long life. Of course, there was the matter of what was considered right and wrong in that topic…

"Now, while we're here, I think it's about time you learn about the various universes discovered so far," she said, stopping at a particularly cluttered page mapping out differences and similarities. Josephine's eyes lit up as she tried to peer closer at the pages, her attention already caught by the topic. "Most particularly," Malice said, pointing a finger up. "The Wa-verse."


	15. All Going NOT According to Plan (Part 1)

**15\. All Going NOT According to Plan (The Fear of a Father)**

* * *

"What do you think?"

Mack looked at the red armor, trying to suppress the uncanny resemblance to the look of a certain's blonde armor from failed hero times that appeared before his eyes. Instead, he focused on the difference, both arms were real, the flame paint job, the roller skates that originated from his little girl's childhood… The lack of a helmet, instead replace with just orange goggles, let him look at Maci in the eye as she twiddled her thumbs nervously under the retired hero's gaze.

"Dad?"

"You look perfect," he voiced, smiling as he began to ruffle her hair. The brunette girl laughed as she tried fruitlessly to shield her head before going back to nervously smiling. "Ready to be a hero!" Mack tried to hide his own nervousness, trying to think of anything but how the years had seemed to pass so quickly to have his baby already ready to be officially named the new protector of the place he himself had once protected.

"You think I'll be up for it though? I mean, I know I've been in training and done a bunch of mission but this is like-" she began to express her doubt, shaking a bit. Mack gave a laugh, patting her on her head.

"Hey, did they ask for anyone else to take up the mantle? Didn't you already save Josephine a ton by this point? You'll do fine, Maci. You'll probably be a better hero than me since you and Josephine are friends."

Maci, in turn, gave a smile despite still clearly being unsure and hugged her father. Mack's own smile fell a bit, hugging back tighter and closing his eyes.

"You grew up so fast…"

"Dad…"

"Sorry, it's just... Alright, enough doubting yourself!" Mack straight up and held Maci away from him. "You better get to that ceremony before the night is out!"

* * *

That was three hours ago and Mack watched the television as Dash poured another cup of soda beside him. Several other heroes from the League were at the small house, party decorations set and ready for the new hero in red's return for a surprise. In the meantime, many watched the ceremony and gala thrown at the palace for the occasion on the small television in the room.

"Hard to believe she's already twenty-two," Dash said, giving a small laugh as the pallets of blues, pinks, and green made it easy to see where the bright red suit was in the crowd. "Where the bolt did 'Roller Girl' go all these years?" the bee joked, Mack responding with a chuckle.

"She got trained into Maci Mulder," came the voice of Hauyne, the ogre in blue leaning against the back of the couch. "Find it funny she'd go with red of all colors."

"It helps her stand out," Mack said a bit too quickly. Hauyne raised a brow before attention was given back to the television. "Besides, it's a good thing she didn't choose blue. People might have given thought she'd be trying to be just like me."

"Isn't that what she has done, though? Being a hero, wielding the same sword, and even if the armor's a different color… Mack, it still looks so much like yours," Dash pointed out. A short sigh left the bee at all the pieces.

Mack decided to ignore the observation, instead of keeping his eye on the television and listening to the reporter interview which of the guests at the gala of what they thought of the events, about his daughter, and of Mayapple's decision of placing the daughter of her ex in the place of the official hero.

He barely heard the phone ring and one of the league's members answering it, instead, he went on watching in the background how Maci was chatting with several of the attendees, in particular with what seemed to be another hero who dressed in green.

"Oh, I see Kells got an invitation," Hauyne commented, finally getting Mack's attention back.

"Who?"

"Kells Handel. Been helping him train as a hero for the past few months."

"Handsy's kid?"

"I guess. Didn't know he and Maci were on friendly terms."

Before Mack could ask further, the sound of an explosion echoed in his ears and attention was back to the news, the reporter now frantic and hurriedly sharing what was going on. Through the now broken windows in the background, Mack could see the faint, purple ship parked in the air. Familiar minions were now at the gala, weapons aimed at the guests as they crowded in the middle of the room.

He hadn't even noticed how he had already jumped up until he tried moving, several hands gripping onto him. Looking around the room, he noticed how some of the others had already left to help deal with the situation, while others such as Dash had been the ones preventing him from instinctively joining the fight on the other side of the screen.

The sound of explosion entered again, him looking back to see Crow in red armor through makeshift bombs at… his own minions? Mack blinked, only to see instead of the blonde that once fought at his side it was Maci battling the minions of Crow while keeping the gala's guests behind her and away from the attackers until the other heroes that had just been at his own house entered the fray.

His heartbeat in his ears, Mack was forced back onto the couch by Hauyne and Dash, the remaining heroes watching.

"What is Crow doing?! What is he up to!? Is he trying to get rid of her now that she's officially an enemy!? I need to get there, I need to get my armor and-"

"Mack!" Dash yelled.

"Mack... Mack, stay with us," Hauyne said more calmly, smacking the back of his head. "They've got this, okay? _She's_ got this."

"Yeah, she's been training so long to be ready for stuff like thi-"

Whatever Dash was going to continue to say, it was interrupted by the voice that came through the television, one that Mack didn't recognize even though the purple figure it came from was familiar as always.

"**Well, well, well, all this for my new rival? I'm almost jealous, Macro City."**

'_The voice is wrong_,' he thought. The camera zoomed in on the purple figure.

Mack swore Hauyne and Dash holding him down were torturing him as he stared at the helmetless blonde figure, those green eyes staring, daring to smirk at their victims.

'_The eyes are wrong_.'

"**Bolt off, Thrasher!"** Josephine's voice could be heard, a stillness taking place in Mack's head.

'_Thrasher… Crow has a son named Thrasher, Mayapple and Malice both told that story of Thrasher trying to kidnap Josephine all those years back, this is Thrasher attacking my daughter…He looks so much like Crow. Too much like Crow.'_

Maci's voice rang through, the camera zooming to her in front of both Josephine and Mayapple, her own bombs at the ready.

"**Begone villain! As long as we heroes are here to stand, you will not be taking either princesses!" **

He was so proud, clutching his chest as his heartbeat could still echo through his head while focusing on the confidence she held in front of her foe.

It only lasted for a minute before the villain in purple began to chuckle and raced towards the crowd, screams echoing as Maci took out a sword with an eyeball, _his sword,_ and prepared to attack Thrasher. Instead of a confrontation or a fight, Maci was picked up by the blonde, dropping the swords out of shock, and was placed over his shoulder. The villain turned around in the opposite direction and leaving the room with a smirk.

"**What the bolt!?"**

"**My lovely raven, prepare for the obstruction of the status quo!"**

Everything went still, on both the television and in the room.

And then all hell broke loose as everyone tried to figure out if what had just happened had really happened. On the television, several heroes, Josephine, the Kells boy, and Mayapple chased after Thrasher while in the room more heroes left to join the rescue. Mack could only stare at the television blankly. His mind was static as it slowly pieced everything back together into something very close to rage.

This was _his daughter_'_s_ night. This was supposed to be a celebration for _her_. This was _her _night to be what she had wanted and promised to be. And this villain, this son of Crow, just _kidnapped her on live television. _

"Dash… I need my armor."

_Hell was going to pay_.


	16. All Going NOT According to Plan (Part 2)

**16\. All Going NOT According to Plan (Chaos Challenge)**

* * *

When looking back at this moment years later, he should have known this would all bite him back in the most painful manner.

Thrasher did have a plan going into this, despite what the minions though as he carried the female hero over his shoulder to his getaway ship. And it was a simple plan. Crash the party, steal one or both of Macro City's princesses for ransom, keep the heroes at bay long enough for the ransom to be sneakily given to them under everyone's noses by their spy and boom goes the dynamite.

But then.. She was there.

Thrasher _had_ expected his new rival to be there, after all it was a celebration for her. But he didn't _expect_ her in a sense either.

Even as she kicked against him, hitting his back in efforts to get him to put her down, Thrasher's mind went to focusing on the smell of explosives and high energy that remained clinging to Maci's armor. The high beam energy sword she had been holding in preparation to fight him, the fact that had been using her own makeshift bombs against his minions, it left a grin on his face. Even her name amused him.

Maci. A variant of Macy that could roughly have both the meanings 'weapon' and 'girl.' It was just so simple yet complex already.

Once in the getaway vehicle for himself, he shut and locked the doors and windows before signalling the driver to get to the main ship and putting his hostage down. Already, she tried to throw a punch to his face, only for him to catch her fist with his own as he looked down at her, taking in every part of her features.

She had to be… what? Five foot eight at his best guess? Maybe tall for the average woman, but still smaller than him, just making it past his own shoulders. A bit more dumpy than he expected from a hero that his reports had told him had been through training. She already had stains on her face and red armor from the bombs _she_ had been using to defend the gala's guests. His eyes trailed down to her roller skate boots and back up to her armored hands in time for her to throw another punch towards him. Once again, he caught it with his other hand, staring intensely at hers. Both the skates and hands had such a bright yellow flame paint job on them, possibly a way for cops to watch out and avoid hitting her with guns in a fight scene? Or maybe it was a link to her background. The heroes could be strange with such things. He looked back to her face, observing the pale skin with a tan that clearly came from days out training instead of happening to having a parent with a slight darker skin tone. Dark brown hair tied in long pigtails, out of the way and unable to be caught in her armor. He wondered how she'd look with it down, envisioning a waterfall behind her before his attention was grabbed by the look in her matching brown eyes. Already trying to calculate how to get out of the situation, still having the fire she had held in the ballroom with the familiar glance of fear he knew from his own mission before this very night. And yet there was a spark of something else in them, something he could understand fully but from the wrong angle. Utter chaos. A potential challenger. This entire sight before him was utterly...

"_Perfect._"

* * *

To say she was terrified was an understatement.

So much of her training had included her thinking and ready to defend her home, her dearest friend Josephine, and said friend's mother. Heroes helped prevented or save those in distress, they helped those in need and protected their dearest one. Villains sought out power, destruction, or just no order.

Even when listening to her father's stories about the day he did save Mayapple, even going through all of history to find examples of the times heroes had failed, Maci never found a situation like this.

There were no records of a villain ever kidnapping the hero.

She never felt so humiliated in her life. The only thing that overshadowed the feeling was the overwhelming fear when her finally meeting Thrasher face to face.

She felt so small against his giant height, something she never thought she'd be able to feel given her own height in comparison. She could give a guess though, given her exposure of dealing with heroes who retained a massive height, or even Josephine who she knew had finally stopped growing at six foot even. He seemed roughly around her friend's height even, maybe just an inch taller?

It didn't matter, not while she tried to aim a kick to the area between his legs. Only he moved to the side and leg go of her hands, her roller skates in turn causing her to fall back. Instead of meeting the floor of the getaway vehicle, Thrasher had caught her in one of his arms, the other against the wall now behind her.

The almost predatory look on his face still hadn't left, his jade eyes pinned onto her and seemingly scanning every part of her. The one word he had utter just before still echoed in her head. What had he meant by perfect? The situation? Her as a disaster of a hero now?

She hissed as he cupped her chin with one hand, Maci trying to jerk away while he was directing her to look up at him.

"Marry me."

"... WHAT?!"

* * *

Meanwhile, the minions driving the vehicle were practically squirming in their seats as Maci proceeded to kick Thrasher in the groin, followed by the sound of the young blonde chasing the brunette around the small space behind said minions with promises of marriage.

"Oh dear bolts, did he just seriously-?"

"Crow is going to _kill_ us when he hears of this."

"No, _Becky_ is going to kill us, Crow might spend too much time laughing at this to stop her."


	17. All Going NOT According to Plan (Part 3)

**17\. All Going NOT According to Plan (Rescuing a Heart)**

* * *

The reinforcements for the Condor quickly arrived after receiving a distress signal from a minion, which already set off a red flag. They found the entire ship under attack from heroes almost everywhere. The main objective, alongside getting rid of the intruders, was to find Thrasher and why he hadn't been the one to send the distress signal. Becky took off down to the way towards the main halls while Crow went to search towards the lower decks.

Crow had just turned a corner in time to see his eldest hugging the entrance to a room like his life depended on it.

While wearing a tux.

Crow didn't have much time to think or ask on this before the attackers on the other side tried to deal damage at seeing him. He ducked behind the table blocking the doorway, managing to see Mack, Mayapple, Josephine, a hero in green he didn't recognize, and a girl in an almost white dress and red armored glove, all looking furious.

He hid behind the table, trying to process the whole situation before looking over at Thrasher to say something. Thrasher already beat him to explain what was going on.

"Alright, so, it turns out my new rival that Macro City was celebrating tonight is Mack Mulder's daughter, Maci."

"What?"

"I'm not done! And… I didn't remember that until after the rescue party came for her."

"You kidnapped the hero!? And why are you in a tux?!"

"Still note done! And I might have been trying to get her to marry me."

Crow stared at this idiot for a moment before dragging a hand down his own face. He made this kid. This idiot of a kid.

"Why were you trying to get her to marry you…"

"Because she's utter chaotic perfection," Thrasher answered back, a near predatory smirk on his face as he took a chance to look back at the attackers.

"Alright! Alright! Everyone stop!" Crow yelled out, holding a finger up. "I need to fully get this situation!"

"Like bolts I'll stop, that bastard just-" Mack yelled out before Mayapple held a hand.

"Crow, didn't you watch the gala tonight?" the pink armored princess asked, keeping a shield up as Crow stood up from the cover of the table and walls, holding onto one of his son's ears to force the other up as well.

"No, actually we were using the whole thing to our advantage and trying to rob a few places before we got the distress signal from here," Crow clarified. "So, just from what this birdbrain of a son told me, he kidnapped Mack's daughter and tried to get her to marry him?"

"On the very night she officially became the kingdom's main hero," Josephine added with a growl, gripping her scepter tightly in one hand as Maci and the hero in green both aimed their bomb wielding arms towards the villains.

Crow took a deep breath and chanced a glance at Thrasher. He ended up scowling at the younger villain's 'lovestruck' look towards the hero that Crow now knew was a wedding dress. '_Where did he even get that?_' Of course, 'lovestruck' was a very loose term since Thrasher just ended up looking like he was a predator about to tear into prey.

He made this poor idiot. This poor, pitiful idiot that Crow knew was about to get sucked into the cycle all over again.

"Alright, so before anyone does anything irrational-"

"A little bit late for that!" The hero in green yelled.

"Shut it, Broccoli."

"It's Kells!"

"Shut it! Anyway, before this gets even further out of hand, how about we all just go and I'll deal with bashing in a few facts into my idiot of a son's head."

The rescue party stared at Crow for a moment, the sound of battle elsewhere on the ship echoing through the air.

"You… don't want to fight us?"

"Oh, trust me, Mack, I do. But right now, there is a more concerning matter that I do need to deal with that doesn't concern blowing you all off my ship. You have your daughter back, my son's only going to learn if I deal with teaching him this time, you get the idea."

An awkward moment of silence between the two groups before Mayapple was the first to relax and direct the others out, with a bit of protest from Maci, Josephine, and Mack all together.

"Oh, and Mack?"

The ex-hero in blue glared over at Crow, only to see the amber-eyed villain grin and stick his tongue out before saying in a sing-song tune.

"My kid's better than your kid. My kid did twice the work than yours did."

Thrasher quickly had to force his father to duck to avoid the high energy beam sent their way.

* * *

Later on, Crow would have Thrasher sit down in the kitchen once all the heroes had left the ship, both of them out of their armor and in regular civilian clothes as Becky nearby patted Ibis's back. The youngest child was busy laughing at being told the whole event.

"Thrashy, really? A hero?" the platinum blonde choked out between her laughs.

Thrasher meanwhile had rested his head against his hand, his arms resting on the countertop as he seemed to be daydreaming. Crow slammed his robotic hand against the counter to get the other blonde's attention.

"Listen, I get those other villains aren't your type, but this goes a bit too far. If you're really that desperate for a date, Thrash, I'm telling you right now that going fully for the hero team is a bad idea. Or did that Marie girl not teach you anything in how this is probably going to go?"

Thrasher sneered at the mention of the name before looking to the side to avoid the glare both Becky and Crow were sending his way.

"Cut it right now and avoid the inevitable heartbreak. This whole on the spot kidnapping you pulled on her will no doubt have her already hating you," Becky said. Ibis now had finally stopped laughing, looking with pity towards the tallest member of the family as he refused to look at any of them.

"If it counts for anything… if it wasn't for the hero bit, I thought it was rather romantic?"

"Ibis, that doesn't help anyone in this room," Crow said, pointing a finger at the teen.

"Sorry, Dad."

"Love and hate aren't that different.." Thrasher muttered.

"Thrasher."

"Fine... fine…"

Crow gave a short sigh of relief. Maybe this time there was a chance that they had spared his son an easily avoidable heartbreak.

* * *

Thrasher still proceeded to battle against Maci and the other hero Kells for the next week before he kidnapped Maci again for another attempt of marriage.

Well, Crow was always bad at being good. But no one could say he wasn't going to try and prevent what was going to be a disaster.


End file.
